The Morrissey's Are Going Green

Those of you who know us, know that my lovely wife is into all things green, after all, she is going to grad school for environmental policy. Not that she's running around wearing Birkenstocks and hugging trees, but more on a day to day level.

Over the years, she's slowly rid me of my lazy ways and got me to switch some products and recycle more. Our only real complaint about living up here is the lack of curbside recylcing, meaning that the weekly garbage/recycling pick up is very limited.

This past winter, we kept the heat down at 62 (unless we had people over, then we'd turn it up to 68 or so), you'd be surprised how quickly you get used to it. We've got a decent sized house, so thankfully there are many heat zones so we can do a pretty good job of controlling which rooms get heat. I'm pretty sure we were the only people in the state to have a credit with the oil company (not just any credit, a $1000 credit). And just like everyone else, we use those energy efficient light bulbs and only buy energy star appliances. Common sense stuff really.

We've also made a couple of other switches. We switched from a clay based kitty litter (clay soaks up liquid and becomes very very heavy and doesn't dissolve in landfills) to a pine litter. This absorbs the smell and liquid much better, is half as expensive and lasts longer. Plus, it's a lot easier to clean up after the cats track it around the house.

Outside, we're(and by we I mean the wife) has the veggie garden going, and we've built up quite the compost pile, which will save us from using store bought fertilizer. The wife has also started using bath water (she takes a lot of baths) to water the plants outside (soap free of course). We're also going to put up a clothes line in the backyard this weekend. Not to dry everything, but just as an alternate option to using the dryer every time. Plus, clothes dried outside always smell really nice. We just have to hope that a bear or Sasquatch or something doesn't steal our stuff..

Inside, we've stopped buying Swiffers (which are great at picking up dust and cat hair) and bought some microfiber cloths which do the same thing. The difference being we don't have to go out and buy new ones when they're dirty, we just have to throw them in the wash. Again, saving us money and giving us one less thing to throw in the garbage. And in on final bit of craziness, we've decided to to use reusable diapers versus the disposable ones. Now these aren't the cloth diapers with the safety pin you're picturing right now. Basically the liner you take out and throw in the wash, reusing the outside diaper itself. At first I was pretty skeptical, but after doing my research I'm convinced they're a good idea. We'll still use disposables for traveling and whatnot, but we won't use nearly as many as the average person. Check out these stats:

• If the average baby is in diapers for 2.5 years, they'll use about 7,000 diapers. With cloth, we'll buy three dozen and just wash them
• In 1955, 100% of babies were in cloth diapers and about 7% experienced diaper rash
• In 1991, 78% of babies were in disposable diapers and 78% experience diaper rash

So which do you think the baby prefers? It might not be fun to clean up, but I think long run it's worth it.

Every little bit helps right...